


Slightly

by goldensummertime



Category: Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
Genre: Gen, idk its rindea if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-16
Updated: 2015-05-16
Packaged: 2018-03-30 21:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3952738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goldensummertime/pseuds/goldensummertime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How many worlds had they gone through in total? How many times had they died? He didn't know. What would they do in the end? They weren't sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slightly

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while stressing over ap testing and finished it afterwards. Practice with writing in present tense I guess. The summary is terrible though haha. Have fun reading~

The nights around Eternia are cold, definitely, but Ringabel finds himself more use to it than normal.

Or was this sort of feeling ‘normal’ when he was still purely Alternis? An answer like that is lost at this point in time, but he can’t help himself. He finds himself dwelling on the topic of his once-forgotten past too often as of late. Edea almost notices, but he manages to cover his feelings up extraordinarily well, considering he used to be fairly thin when it came to wearing his heart on his sleeve.

Tiz and Agnes are too worried about the crystals and Airy’s yelling to focus on him too much, and, even though he loathes that fairy which he has certain choice words to describe her with, he is slightly thankful to her for keeping them away as he deals with inner demons. Slightly.

He opens the window to let a blast of freezing air in, and the candle that he was writing by dies out with a sputter, and he feels slightly bad for it, but not for long.

He takes a step up, kneeling on the windowsill as the snow that had gathered on it soaks through his pant legs, the cold grounding him slightly.

Edea would probably grab at his arm and yank him back if she saw him. The result of seeing… three? Maybe four Alternises die of the same fate.

How many times had they all died? He pushes the thought away, but not soon enough; he feels cold tears spring to his eyes as he recalls Edea’s broken form resting in his arms once again, the familiar scent and warmth of the flowing blood staining his clothes uncovered by his dark armor. Did armor rust from blood? He didn’t want to know, shuddering.

The clanking of a guard in the hall brings him forth from his thoughts, and he jumps off of the windowsill, quickly shutting the panes.

At least the Templar of this world was kind enough to consider them allies to a certain extent, after they had explained that they were from a different world.

His thoughts trail to Airy again. The wing patterns… Biting his tongue, he opens the journal once again, flipping to the last page of his-Alternis’s diary. The pattern looks eerily like a number six, but it could just as easily be a signature. He holds his head again before gulping down more water to quell the pain. Thinking about the past didn’t help at all in any way; physical or mental.

A knock rings out through his room, and after giving a word of acknowledgement, Edea walks in, holding a tray of food, giving a quiet answer to his unanswered question of why she was there in the first place.

“You were probably lonely weren’t you?” A typical answer, which he probably should have expected from Edea to try and cover up her own insecurities. He sweeps his hair, which isn’t done up like normal, to the side, flashing a coy smile. “I shall always be waiting for you to grace my presence. Loneliness isn’t an issue.”

“Can it, Ringabel.” Edea is in no mood for empty banter, and sets the tray on the desk. Her eyes are full of sleeplessness and Ringabel can’t help but worry for her, as usual.

“What is wrong, my dear?” His voice lacks the usual pomp, but the concern is still there, and they both sit down on his bed as Ringabel fingers the cup of black coffee, the heat from the hot drink warming his cold hands.

Edea gives a sigh, rubbing a hand over her face as she shakes her head. “I had a… dream…”

A nightmare, then… Ringabel and Edea both remain quiet, but after a few tense moments, Ringabel begins to raise his arm to wrap her shoulders.

“It was… A strangely nice dream…” He freezes, letting his arm hit the bed. It was surprising to hear words like those, considering just how much poor Edea had suffered throughout their journey. Betrayal, death, sickness. They were all a constant for the whole group, but the former hit Edea the hardest.

“What was it about?” It would probably be a bittersweet dream with the Venus sisters alive and well, despite that being true in this world, along with a general ‘getting along’ of both parties. He wishes his dreams could be like that, even just once.

Edea shifts on the bed slightly, silent, but Ringabel catches the sadness in her eyes as she leans her cheek against his shoulder. Moments where she willingly allows him to be supportive to her are rare, even if the situations themselves are less wanted, so he rubs her shoulder with his free hand.

“It was the four of us. Tiz and Agnes were making flower crowns or something as we sat outside.” Edea rubs her hand. “It was nice, and everyone was… happy… and alive…”

Ringabel bites his lip, moving his head to the side slightly. “We don’t have to dwell on what couldn’t be, Edea. We’re here now.”

“But what about when we fix the Great Chasm? What will you do then once Agnes, Tiz and I go back to our world?” Edea turns to face him, but all he can feel is guilt. “What will you do since the ‘us’ in your world died?”

A hard question with no right answer, but he had come up with his own choice long ago, and was going to stick to it, no matter how much it hurt.

“I’ll be going back to my own world.” He looks away as he says it to avoid seeing the look of hurt on Edea’s face. “It’s where I was born after all. I need to fix it.”

She tugs on his sleeve, silent for a few moments. “I know that, but…”

He clasps her hand in his. “I can’t give up on my world, even if… even if everyone that I know is gone.” She meets his eyes, and he is surprised to see anger.

“Was… no, am I just a replacement for the Edea that you fell in love with?”

Ringabel blinks, the change in topic surprising him, but he can’t deny her claims, despite it all. Tilting his head to the side, he leans back, giving a sigh. “At one point, yes. I can’t lie about that, especially not to you.”

Edea huffs, shaking her head slightly. “It doesn’t matter. You’re going to be leaving anyway, so I shouldn’t put any more strain on our-“

“Losing my memories wasn’t that bad to me, though.” Edea stops talking and eyes him warily. He gives a small smile, turning to her again. “Even though I had the diary telling the ‘future’ events, and a description of all of you, I’m glad that I was able to live a life without any regrets as ‘Alternis’.”

Edea narrows her eyes, pouting slightly. “But if you had your memories, people wouldn’t have died as much…”

He shakes his head, shrugging. “We’ll never know.”

“Will you be able to go back to being Alternis after living as Ringabel for so long? Won’t it be hard?”

“It won’t be easy.” His eyes narrow, and his face becomes more downcast. “After all that’s happened, moving on will be difficult, but it’s something that I need to do in order to restore my world.”

Edea shuts her eyes tightly, gripping his hand harder. “You don’t have to go back. You’ll have a good home here, you won’t have to worry about anything happening. I can put a good word in with my father, and the Alternis of my world… We don’t even know what happened, so you can-“

“I can’t just replace him, Edea.” His eyes turn harsh, and she leans back, startled. “Just like how you can never replace the Edea of my world. Regardless of appearance, Alternis and I aren’t the same person. The Edea of my world wasn’t like you, either.”

She feels guilty pushing the action, but moves her hand over the quilt lying on the bed. “I just… I don’t want you to leave… There may be different Edeas and different Alternises, but there’s only one Ringabel…” She wipes at her face, turning away as her face turned red with embarrassment.

Ringabel opens his mouth to say something, eyes wide, but decides against it, lips hardening into a fine line. “Don’t think like that…”

“I still don’t want you to leave… You… You mean something to all of us, you know?” She grips her skirt, looking down. “I just… Don’t know what to think… I don’t want you to leave…”

Ringabel slightly considers kissing her, but that would accomplish nothing, and it would make any sort of parting harder for the both of them. Was the feeling mutual?

He doesn’t answer.


End file.
